Take the Leap
by BobDerStreuner11
Summary: 1920s -30s Circus AU. Nico and Bianca went to see a circus after moving to America. But Nico somehow charms his way into being a juggler, and slowly starts falling in love with their medic, Will Solace. Follow them through a journey of love and circus.
1. Chapter 1

**Eyo! My name is BobDerStreuner11 or BDS11 for those who don't know me. Go check out my other stories. Anyways, I love to do circus and so I thought I'd write a Circus AU. Also, shout out to my beta, CleoKat, go check her out anime fans. On to the chappie!**

 **Word count: 1213**

"Are you sure you don't want to go Nico?" Nico stared up at his sister with wide eyes

"Bia, you know only one of us can go and you've been so excited, I'll be fine,"

"Fine, but next time, you get to go," She grabbed the ticket and pushed aside the soft yellow and red striped curtains and entered the magical world of the circus. Nico sighed as he watched his sister walk through the doors, but picked up a few stones and started aimlessly tossing them around, before converting to actual juggling.

He had taught himself a few tricks back in Italy, including how to juggle. Having to spend your entire day inside was quite boring in the twentieth century, especially during the war. Nico and Bianca made do with what they had though. But now, they were in America! They didn't have to worry anymore. Lost in thought, he flipped one of the stones up and under his leg before switching to a complex pattern. However, he was so caught up in his juggling that he didn't notice anyone come up behind him. After he was tapped on the shoulder, he let out a shriek before dropping the stones. Turning around he found bright, sea green eyes staring at him.

 **Nico POV**

"Hey there! My name's Percy. What's your name? I was just wondering what you were doing here. Normally people go inside the circus," I chose my words carefully before speaking in shaky English.

"My sister Is inside. N-no money. Just one. I am Nico," He must have caught the gist of it because he smiled warmly before replying.

"Oh, I see. That was some pretty complicated juggling. Do you want to come inside?" He swung an arm around my shoulder leading me around the tent towards the back entrance.

"Hey guys! I found Nico outside. He only had enough money for his sister so I thought we should give him a show," Everyone smiled at the young juggler. Percy continued,

"This is Jason, he catches trapeze, and his girlfriend Piper, an aerialist," He pointed to a blonde haired, blue eyed man with his arm around a choppy haired brunette. "Jason's sister Thalia, is a handstand archer and contortionist," She was a black-haired girl with the same electric blue eyes as Jason. "Then we have my girlfriend Annabeth and Beckendorf who make the set together," I waved at the Blonde and African American who were having a conversation (argument) on which color they should have used. "Leo and Calypso, fire breather and clown, and aerialist and costumes. Then we have Silena, Beckendorf's girlfriend, who works on costumes, Frank, who does a clowning act with Leo and choreographs everything along with Reyna, Hazel, who is an aerialist, and finally, Clarisse and Chris. Clarisse is our lead tumbler, and Chris does all the stage work. Lights, music and such,"

"You guys have around ten minutes," Chris said, looking at the clock. I was growing more and more excited. After unearthing some of his dad's old circus DVD s in Venice, I had taught himself juggling, and a little bit of tumbling. I had secretly always wanted to see a circus, or maybe learn how to do a few things. Then I thought of my sister. She always had a fascination with Thalia and grew obsessed over the years. Bianca wanted to do everything she could do, and taught herself handstands, and stretched every night, hoping to one day be capable of Thalia's amazing contortionism. Percy walked on stage greeting everyone with a loud,

"Hello! Bonjour! Wilkommen!" just going on and on saying hello and/or welcome in every language you could think of. I even think I heard some Greek and Latin. After a quick 'chat with the audience' as he described it, Piper, Calypso, Hazel, and Jason appeared on the trapeze rig behind Percy that was suddenly lit up with purple-blueish lights. They grinned brightly and waved at the audience, but what captivated me most was the fact that they had no fear whatsoever. They simply stood 24 feet in the air on a tiny 1 by 5 ish platform, held on to a bar and jumped. No safety lines, just a net, and Jason. Piper started off with a simple trick, a backend split. She flipped herself under the bar easily landing in Jason's arms. I could quickly tell why she did a split. The return was the big part. Sure enough, a minute later she did a pirouette in the air before snatching the bar Calypso had dropped. Chatting amongst themselves, Hazel did a quick series of flips, turning around and swinging around the bar, not even going for a catch. Probably because she was small and could compact herself into a tiny position to flip faster. Calypso did a double double catch with a simple return, nothing fancy. After ten more minutes of trapeze, they all did sexy backs into the net, landing with a flourish. After everyone ran out to break the rig down, Frank and Leo went out on stage. They soon had the audience howling with laughter, with Frank's natural clumsiness and Leo's mischievous sense of humor. Even those backstage suppressed giggles, having seen it countless times. Thalia went out and shot a few arrows, and I spotted Bianca looking with awe and cheering loudly. I turned my head upside down as she twisted herself up into unimaginable positions. She was quickly surrounded by the tumblers and Clarisse who flipped up way higher than most of the audience could jump. Everyone was captivated by everything happening, and my mind was working unbelievably fast, identifying every trick, and which shows I had seen it in. After a few more acts, it was over and everyone went on stage for a final bow. I clapped as loud as I could along with the rest of the audience.

"Hey Neeks. Did you have fun?" Percy asked me as everyone walked back in. I nodded my head vigorously.

"I always want to see circus," I said slowly. "Always dream of me and Bianca,"

"That's your sister, right?" He asked. I nodded again. "Can you show us the juggling thing again? Some of us can juggle, but we aren't very good. We might have a spot for you," He handed me a few balls and I started juggling slowly before picking up the pace and doing complex patterns and flips with the balls. But then I tried throwing under my leg. A simple trick, but I fell over. I stood up, dusted myself off and ignored the searing pain in my ankle. Everyone rushed over, but I pushed them off.

"Nico! That was amazing! But, um, your ankle is bright red." Jason commented. Screw having to wear shorts in the summer. I cursed under my breath.

"We'd better go see Will." Hazel worriedly spoke. I was confused. Who was Will? Limping slightly, I followed Hazel towards one of the trailers. She knocked softly, then opened the door to reveal a handsome blonde reading a book on one of the couches.

"Will?" she called softly, "Nico twisted his ankle. Could you help?" She quickly explained the situation before Will nodded and turned towards me. Then in the most amazing southern accent, he said,

"Hi Nico. My name is Will."

 **Aaaand cut! I'm not gonna lie, I'm really excited for this. I actually do trapeze as a past time and lemme tell you, if you ever have the chance to try flying trapeze, do it. You have to. Anyways, for those of you who are confused, this is set in the 1920's-30's during WWII. Except we're gonna pretend that gay people are a normal thing because solangelo.**

 **QotC: Favorite circus art?**

 **I (obviously) love trapeze more than anything in the world, but if I had to choose something else, I would choose silks, probably. Or trampoline. Or juggling. Yeah, I like it all.**

 **Toodle Pip!**

 **-BDS11**


	2. Chapter 2

**Eyo! Welcome back to the second chappie! I told you it would take a long time between updates. I'm not gonna waste any more time so... on to the chappie!**

 **Word Count: 1167**

 **Will POV**

I looked up into the softest chocolate brown eyes I had ever seen, before snapping back together and introducing myself.  
"Hi Nico. My name is Will." I gave him a warm smile and offered him a seat before kneeling down to examine his ankle.  
"It's just a little sprain. You'll only need to use crutches for a week or so, but then you'll be fine." I grabbed a bandage and quickly wrapped it up before handing him a pair of crutches. He picked them up and whispered,  
"Thanks Weel," with his strong Italian accent. He had a smooth, deep voice that almost made me shiver. How did that small boy have such a strong voice? I turned back to my book as Hazel led him out, chattering excitedly.

 **Nico POV**

I almost rolled my eyes at how excited Hazel was. She kept telling me how amazing I was and exactly what I did. I was there. I know what I did. She reminded me of Bianca a little. Wait a minute, I forgot about Bianca! I stopped, eyes wide and Hazel turned around.  
"What's wrong?" she inquired.  
"I forgot Bianca," I whispered, "She's waiting for me," Her eyes widened and we immediately ran, or quickly hobbled, in my case, towards the front of the tent, rushing past all the other performers.  
"Nico!" Bianca yelled and waved for me. "Don't disappear on me like that! And why are you hurt?" She began rapidly speaking in Italian.  
"Bianca!" I stopped her. "I'm fine, but I have someone I'd like you to meet." I turned towards Hazel.  
"Can we go back?" I asked, "Bianca is Thalia's biggest fan." I was getting better at English after listening to the circus people chatter. She turned around and I motioned for Bianca to follow me. Confused, she kept a good distance behind us, worriedly staring at my back. I rolled my eyes at her and grabbed her hands before dragging her along. We ducked into the tent, and I swear, Bianca almost fainted when she saw Thalia.  
"Thalia. Grace," she whispered, "You met her and you didn't tell me?" She yelled in Italian. Everyone's head swiveled towards us.  
"Uh, this is Bianca," I said. Everyone greeted her quickly before going back to their conversations. Percy slowly lumbered over.  
"I forgot to tell you, Nico, but, you're hired," he said. Bianca looked confused. I quickly explained in Italian before asking Percy,  
"She does c-contortion," I said struggling with the long word. "Can she show you?" He quickly nodded and I asked Bianca to show him what she could do. She quickly laid down and brought her feet over her head so her legs were straight. Then she bent her legs and flipped herself to a standing position. Then, she flipped into a handstand, doing the splits before lowering herself so she was sitting in the splits. Standing up she looked at him expectantly. He nodded, inquiring,  
"So where did you guys learn this?" We looked down, having never had a teacher. I whispered,  
"We taught ourselves," and looked up to see Percy's face contort with shock.  
"You taught yourselves? Do you know how crazy that is? You are both definitely coming with us," Bia and I grinned at each other. Not only did we have a way to get money, we also had (potential) friends and Bianca had Thalia. And Will but, you know he's not that important, I mean all he was was a cute guy I met like ten minutes ago I don't have any interest in him no not me. Heh heh. Chatting while making our way around the room, we made countless friends. The last person, however, was Thalia. Bianca looked both panicked and starry-eyed as she tried to find some way to get out of meeting her idol. She knew she would most definitely start babbling and stuttering and just word-vomit (in Italian, mind you) all over Thalia.  
"Hey Thalia!" I greeted. She waved,  
"Hi Nico. You're Bianca, right?" Bi looked like she was going to faint but just nodded her head as her eyes grew as wide as saucers. Immediately taking over the conversation, I stuttered through a few more sentences as Bianca slowly regained speech, even laughing and joking a little with Thalia. I smiled at my sister, finally seeing her happy after only seeing boredom and fear for a few months. She still looked slightly malnourished, as we had only been in the US for a few weeks or so and hadn't caught up on missed meals from Italy.

 _I am a time skip that says hello to the stars (*cri* noo bob)_

Half an hour later, I hobbled off, leaving Bianca and Thalia alone for a while. I looked up at the stars outside, noticing how they twinkled brighter than usual. I was so caught up with the dark, purple-blue skyline and the small houses in the distance, that I didn't notice the footsteps behind me.  
"Nico?" a voice whispered. Jumping up I punched the voice in the face. My dad had trained me for if I was kidnapped or taken away so this was instinct. I immediately pulled back, however, after noticing it was a tall, blonde doctor that had snuck up on me.  
"I am so sorry!" I yelped, after making sure he was okay.  
"It's fine, don't worry about it," he assured me, "What are you doing out here anyways? Everyone was having fun inside."  
"Thinking," I said, "So much happening," He nodded before sitting down next to me. Looking back up I whisper, "Why are you out here?"  
"I was looking for you. I was wondering if you would like some English lessons. It's not pity, don't take me wrong, it's just that your English is a little… broken?" he winced, "Sorry that came out wrong, I didn't mean it that way-" I cut him off,  
"I understand. Thank you." Then something occurred to me, "Why didn't you ask Bia? She was closer," Rubbing the back of his neck, he replied,  
"I- I just, I wanted to talk to you!" he blurted. Surprised, I turned to look at him,  
"You wanted to talk to, to me?" I questioned. He nodded before turning bright red.  
"You're intriguing. You don't talk much, come from a different country, and have mad juggling skills," I blushed too and we sat in silence, staring up at the stars. After a while, Will finally spoke up,  
"You know, Hazel offered to help too." I nodded. More silence followed his statement. I admired the twinkling lights as the sky was gradually turning darker and darker until my eyes slowly drooped closed.

 **i am innocent. Will totally is not a cuddler. totally. now just wait for the next chappie.**

 **QotC: What position do you sleep in?**

 **Usually either a small ball or a giant star fish. Either way I hog the blankets.**

 **Toodle Pip!**

 **-BDS11**


End file.
